Collierville, TN Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

The holiday rule lives in the definition of SIGN in § 151.171, part of the sign subchapter of the Collierville zoning chapter. That definition lists things that shall not be considered signs subject to sign regulation, and holiday lighting and decorations are on the list. The text names strips or strings of lights outlining property lines, sales areas, roof lines, doors, windows, wall edges, or other architectural features of a building. The exclusion applies to lighting displayed between Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day of each calendar year and 15 days prior to and after this time period.

The window is tied to the exclusion itself, so lights left up beyond the 15-day tail fall outside the wording that removes them from sign regulation. The code prints no separate holiday-lighting permit and no fee in the sections read.

Section 151.175 repeats the point in its list of exemptions. Its opening line says the sign regulations do not pertain to the items listed, and division (H) is temporary outdoor lighting used as holiday decorations. The printed list runs from (A) to (L), and the exterior lighting section cross-references holiday lighting as § 151.175(Q), so a reader following that cross-reference should look at the holiday item in (H).

The exterior lighting section, § 151.190, adds a second layer for multi-family residential, commercial, and mixed-use development. Its exemptions include temporary outdoor light fixtures used as holiday decoration, and its prohibited lighting list bars illuminated tubing or strings of lights outlining property lines, rooflines, or wall edges of buildings except as provided for holiday lighting. In practice that means the same outline lighting that is allowed at the holidays is prohibited the rest of the year on those property types. The decorative lighting rules in § 151.190(F)(10) also describe holiday decorating lighting as illuminated tubing or strings of lights outlining property lines, rooflines, or wall edges of buildings.

The Department of Development Services enforces the zoning chapter (§ 151.182(A)).